An imaging system includes a pixel array configured to generate image charge voltage signals in response to incident light received from an external scene. An infrared illumination source is deactivated during the capture of a first image of the external scene and activated during the capture of a second image of the external scene. An array of sample and hold circuits is coupled to the pixel array. Each sample and hold circuit is coupled to a respective pixel of the pixel array and includes first and second capacitors to store first and second image charge voltage signals of the captured first and second images, respectively. A column voltage domain differential amplifier is coupled to the first and second capacitors to determine a difference between the first and second image charge voltage signals to identify an object in a foreground of the external scene.

Provided are methods of forming stacks comprising a substrate and one or more sol-gel layers disposed on the substrate. Also provided are stacks formed by these methods. The sol-gel layers in these stacks, especially outer layers, may have a porosity of less than 1% or even less than 0.5%. In some embodiments, these layers may have a surface roughness (R.sub.a) of less than 1 nanometers. The sol-gel layers may be formed using radiative curing and/or thermal curing at temperatures of between 400° C. and 700° C. or higher. These temperatures allow application of sol-gel layers on new types of substrates. A sol-gel solution, used to form these layers, may have colloidal nanoparticles with a size of less than 20 Angstroms on average. This small size and narrow size distribution is believed to control the porosity of the resulting sol-gel layers.

A curable resin composition comprising: (a) 27 to 60 wt % of a liquid siloxane oligomer comprising polymerized units of formula R.sup.1.sub.mR.sup.2.sub.nSi(OR.sup.3).sub.4-m-n, wherein R.sup.1 is a C.sub.5-C.sub.20 aliphatic group comprising an oxirane ring fused to an alicyclic ring, R.sup.2 is a C.sub.1-C.sub.20 alkyl, C.sub.6-C.sub.30 aryl group, or a C.sub.5-C.sub.20 aliphatic group having one or more heteroatoms, R.sup.3 is a C.sub.1-C.sub.4 alkyl group or a C.sub.1-C.sub.4 acyl group, m is 0.1 to 2.0 and n is 0 to 2.0; (b) 35 to 66 wt % non-porous nanoparticles of silica, a metal oxide, or a mixture thereof, having an average particle diameter from 5 to 50 nm; and (c) 0.5 to 7 wt % of a cationic photoinitiator.

A method of synthesizing bimetallic oxide nanocomposites includes the steps of: providing a first metal salt solution; adding an oxidizing agent to the first metal salt solution while degassing the solution with an inert gas; heating the first metal salt solution; adding a second metal salt solution to the heated first metal salt solution to form a reaction mixture; adding a solution comprising a poly (ionic liquid) into the reaction mixture; adding a first base into the reaction mixture; adding a second base while stirring and maintaining a temperature ranging from about 40° C. to about 65° C. to provide a solution including a bimetallic oxide nanocomposite precipitate. The first metallic salt solution can include FeCl.sub.3 dissolved in water. The second metallic salt solution can include CuCl.sub.2 dissolved in water. The bimetallic oxide nanocomposites can be combined with epoxy resin to coat a steel stubstrate.

A device includes a printed circuit board assembly having a printed circuit board and one or more electronic components disposed on the printed circuit board, and a nanofilm disposed on the printed circuit board assembly. The nanofilm includes an inner coating in contact with the printed circuit board assembly, the inner coating including metal oxide nanoparticles having a particle diameter in a range of 5 nm to 100 nm; and an outer coating in contact with the inner coating, the outer coating including silicon dioxide nanoparticles having a particle diameter in a range of 0.1 nm to 10 nm.

Embodiments of invention provide a method for producing a hard coat film which has a hard coat that is formed from an active energy ray-curable resin composition on at least one surface of a film base. According to at least one embodiment, the active energy ray-curable resin composition used in this method contains (P) 100 parts by mass of a urethane (meth)acrylate compound, (Q) 0.02-5 parts by mass of organic fine particles having an average particle diameter of 10-300 nm, and (R) 0.0002-2 parts by mass of an acrylic silicone-based leveling agent. The method according to at least one embodiment includes the steps of (1) forming a wet coating film by applying the active energy ray-curable resin composition to the film base, (2) forming a dry coating film by drying the wet coating film, and (3) forming a hard coat film by curing the dry coating film by means of active energy ray irradiation at a temperature of 50-90° C.

The invention relates to a method of making hybrid organic-inorganic core-shell nano-particles, comprising the steps of a) providing colloidal organic particles comprising a synthetic polyampholyte as a template; b) adding at least one inorganic oxide precursor; and c) forming a shell layer from the precursor on the template to result in core-shell nano-particles. With this method it is possible to make colloidal organic template particles having an average particle size in the range of 10 to 300 nm; which size can be controlled by the comonomer composition of the polyampholyte, and/or by selecting dispersion conditions.

The invention also relates to organic-inorganic or hollow-inorganic core-shell nano-particles obtained with this method, to compositions comprising such nano-particles, to different uses of said nano-particles and compositions, and to products comprising or made from said nano-particles and compositions, including anti-reflective coatings and composite materials.

Provided is a composition for forming a plating base on which plating is applied without a pretreatment, especially any activation process for the plating base, conventionally believed to be necessary, as well as a thus-formed plating base and a method of forming a plating coat over the plating base. The plating base is a coating film formed by applying and drying a metal nanoparticle dispersion liquid or a metal nanoparticle dispersion ink in which metal nanoparticles are protected with a small amount of protecting agent. Thus, a metal film can be formed by plating without operations such as substrate cleaning or catalyst imparting and activating. Since it is not necessary to wash the substrate with acid or base solution or to heat-treat it at a high temperature, many variations of materials become available for the substrate.

A surface treatment agent for an organic-inorganic hybrid composition is provided. The surface treatment agent includes a compound represented by one of the following Chemical Formulae 1 to 3.

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In Chemical Formulae 1 to 3, R.sub.1 to R.sub.3 each include at least one of hydrogen (H), a saturated or unsaturated linear or branched C.sub.1 to C.sub.20 alkyl group, a silane group, a hydroxyl group, and an alkoxysilane group, and R.sub.4 includes H or a hydroxyl group.

Anticorrosive coating compositions as disclosed comprise a binding polymer and an aluminum phosphate corrosion inhibiting pigment dispersed therein. The coating composition comprises up to 25 percent by weight aluminum phosphate. The binding polymer can include solvent-borne polymers, water-borne polymers, solventless polymers, and combinations thereof. The aluminum phosphate is made by sol gel process of combining an aluminum salt with phosphoric acid and a base material. Aluminum phosphate colloidal particles are nanometer sized, and aggregate to form substantially spherical particles. The coating composition provides a controlled delivery of phosphate anions of 100 to 1,500 ppm, depending on post-formation treatment of the aluminum phosphate, and has a total solubles content of less than 1500 ppm, The amorphous aluminum phosphate is free of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, and has a water adsorption potential of up to about 25 percent by weight water when present in a cured film.